LPM Leader Therold Prudent.
Leader of the Lucian Peoples Movement (LPM), Therold Prudent has said he is of the opinion that government is allegedly hiding certain information from the 2009-2011 extra-judicial killings report.
Prudent comment comes one day after Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony addressed the nation through public broadcasts on all television and radio stations locally, on the findings of that report.
The LPM leader said, “We don’t believe what Dr. Kenny Anthony has said to us is the whole truth. We do not believe that anything would become of the report now that it is sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).”
Prudent told St. Lucia News Online (SNO) today that he believes that the government has reneged on its responsibility to the citizens of Saint Lucia, to do what is right “to declassify the report.”
The political leader said Saint Lucians should be allowed the opportunity to go through the report and get an understanding of what came out of the investigation into the alleged police shootings.
“Unless the government decides to be forthcoming with the people of Saint Lucia and allowing us the citizens of this country an opportunity to judge for ourselves, we have to accept that there is something dapper than what the government has told us,” he told SNO.
Prudent argued that the report should not be used to show the United States that an investigation has been completed. Rather, it should be viewed as Saint Lucia living up to its obligation to respect human rights.
Asked whether he feels justice has been served for the families of those who were allegedly killed by the police, Prudent said, “In typical Saint Lucian style (Dr. Kenny Anthony and Saint Lucia Labour Party style), nothing will become of that and the families will never get a chance to feel that justice was served.”
The reason for this, Prudent said, is because nothing comes out of most of the highly controversial cases that were sent to the DPP office in the past.
The main findings into the 2009-2011 extra-judicial killings, confirms that the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) worked from a “black list or death list” of persons deemed criminals and officers staged all shooting-death sites to legitimise their actions.
The report also states that those not only normal officers were involved in the operations, but members of the “high command of the police force” may have been involved in “covering up these matters”.
More alarmingly, the investigators report said that all the shootings reviewed were fake encounters staged by the police to legitimise their actions.
The alleged extra-judicial killings by police officers were carried during “Operation Restore Confidence” – an initiative then Prime Minister Stephenson King announced on May 30, 2010 in an address to the nation.
The police operation was in response to an unprecedented wave of homicides and violent crimes between 2008 and 2010, particularly in the northern half of the island.
Between 2010 and 2011, 12 persons were killed during encounters with officers of the RSLPF.